Zhao Mengfu set off a retro movement in the Yuan Dynasty book world. He has studied Wang Xizhi all his life, so his works are often compared with Wang Xizhi's and used as a benchmark for retro.
However, a book written by Zhao Mengfu in his later years, "Thousand Character Text", is no longer mellow and graceful with a pen, and there is no stroke like Wang Xizhi, but it is praised as Zhao Mengfu's best work and the highest realm of learning from the ancients. Written in the first year of Zhizhi, the year before Zhao Mengfu's death, this work is his most mature work.
To understand this book, we need to start by learning from the copying of ancient texts.
Zhao Mengfu is a gifted calligrapher. Most of the works are in the stage of taking into account both form and spirit, such as "Uncle Ji Night and Shan Juyuan Broken Friendship Book", "Lin Seventeen Posts", etc., whether it is glyphs or charm, they are exactly the same as Wang Xizhi.
In his later years, his works began to take on a sense of virility and unbridleness. "A Thousand Words" is the end point of his new ideas.
Zhao Mengfu said that he wrote "Thousand Character Essay" no less than 100 times. Judging from the fluency of the pen in this work, it is indeed intended to be written first.
This kind of writing relies not only on familiarity with the text, but also on the desire to "chase the charm, ignore the form, and get carried away" after absorbing all the schools and melting.
This volume of "Thousand Character Text" is now in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, and it represents the pinnacle of Zhao Mengfu's calligraphy art.